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“Calla,” I say. Her name on my lips makes my chest tighten.
Fallon nods. “So what’s going on now?”
My jaw clenches. “She’s gone.”
Her eyes widen. “Gone. What do you mean gone? I thought the blood oath connected you to her?”
“Something’s blocking it. Marcel thinks it’s a barrier spell.”
“Fucking witches,” Jase mutters under his breath.
Vampires and witches have never gotten along very well. Centuries of bad blood between the species has gone unresolved. It’s not something I intend to add to my list of problems, but if I found out a witch helped keep Calla from us…
“So what, you think Dante took her?”
I rehash the conversation I had with Marcel, and they agree that Dante’s insufferable personality would make it near impossible for him to go without bragging about his conquest if he’d been the one to take Calla.
“You two haven’t heard anything from him lately?” I check, just to make sure.
“Nah,” Fallon says, tracing her finger along the rim of her glass. She stops, flicking her gaze to mine. “Nothing about Dante, and I’m not sure this is really something you ought to be worrying about right now on top of everything else, but I did hear of Selene showing up around Greenwich a month or so ago. Before that, she hadn’t been in the city for years that I know of.”
“She was sniffing around looking for you,” Jase adds. “When she found out you were living in Washington with your friends, she left New York pretty fast.”
My hands clench into fists as a shiver rips through me at the mention of my sire. The sounds of the room around us—the glasses clinking and people talking over the rock music playing—fade in and out as my chest constricts, making my pulse race.
Selene could have used our sire connection to find me once she got to Washington, though trying to track me from New York may not have worked. Distance, from what I’ve learned, can make tracking through the sire connection difficult.
Sweat dots my brow and upper lip as my eyes bounce between my friends. They know very little about the woman who turned me and the relationship I had with her, which is how it will remain. Not even my brothers know of the horror that was the first year of my life as a vampire. My memories are filled with bloodshed, thoughtless killing, and depraved sex with the monster I believed I loved. Who I naively thought loved me in return, which was her reason for gifting me eternal life.
How wrong I’d been.
Selene wanted nothing but power. Control. Over me and the other vampires she turned. She would never admit to building an army, but that’s exactly what we were. She sired us to stay with her, made us believe we were some kind of family.
It took me a long time to figure out that we were being manipulated. By then, I’d killed so many people… I could never forgive myself for the monster I’d become. I did the only thing I could do—I left her.
That was over a century ago, but to this day, I can’t get rid of the dark, sickening feel of her claws dug into my chest, my very soul.
Ice shoots through my veins and my back stiffens against the plastic booth. I can’t explain the sensations racing through me; I have to get out of here. I need to get home.
“Gabriel—”
My voice shakes as I force out, “It’s her.”
Jase’s dark brows pull together. “What are you talking about, Gabe?”
“She took her,” I say through gritted teeth. My gums throb as my fangs threaten to extend and cut through them.
Fallon sucks in a breath, frowning at me from across the table. “You think Selene has Calla?”
I shake my head, a low growl rumbling through my chest. “Iknowshe does.”
My friends exchange a wary glance as I get out of the booth and head for the door without saying goodbye. Son of a bitch—I should have figured it out sooner. Anger rips through me like a vicious wave, and I fight the urge to put my fist through one of the brick exteriors I pass along the sidewalk.
I pull my phone out of my pocket as I hail a cab, not having enough time to wait for my town car. Getting in the back, I bark at the driver to head to the airstrip I flew into a couple of days ago. He pulls away from the curb with a silent nod, and I don’t bother buckling my seatbelt as I scroll through my contacts and select Atlas’s name.
“Gabriel.” Atlas’s voice is low, tired. We’re all exhausted, barely sleeping these days. Every waking hour is important;we have to find her.
“I know who has her.”
